Is Entrepreneurial Opportunity Objective? Implications from the Ontology and Epistemology of Social Institutions

Abstract

This paper takes a fresh look at a core question in entrepreneurship: are opportunities objective, formed by exogenous shocks to pre-existing markets or industries that entrepreneurs then discover, or are they subjective, created endogenously by the entrepreneurs who form them? Getting clear on the nature of opportunity requires distinguishing clearly between its ontological status and its epistemological status. We take a foundational approach, drawing on tools from philosophy, to clarify the ontology of entrepreneurial opportunity. Our main findings are that entrepreneurial opportunities, like the social institutions in which they are embedded, are inherently ontologically subjective; and that tools from philosophy — specifically social ontology — hold great promise for advancing the conversation on entrepreneurial opportunity specifically, improving our ability to develop novel theory in entrepreneurship, and informing research and practice.